The Master Loses Golden Lion On Technicality, Should Venice Film Fest Change Its Rules?

Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film The Master went over extremely well at the Venice Film Festival. The director was given the Silver Lion for his work helming the project and lead actors Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman shared the top prize for Best Actor. Together, the awards will no doubt position the film as an Oscar frontrunner, but it turns out, the jury actually wanted to honor the film even more.

Kim Ki-duk’s Pieta won the Golden Lion for Best Film but only because, due to a technicality, jury members were unable to honor Anderson, Phoenix/ Hoffman and the film. The festival’s rules allow for an individual film to receive up to two awards provided one is in an acting category and the other is not Best Picture. Golden Lion winners are not allowed to receive any other recognition.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the jury had a long debate trying to decide whether The Master would be better honored with the Golden Lion or two other awards, and in the end, they collectively decided the acting and directing were slightly more impressive.

Obviously, everyone involved is playing very nice about the situation. They’re praising Pieta and acting as if they don’t care. In the grand scheme of things, they probably don’t, but that doesn’t mean the rules shouldn’t be looked at. On the one hand, it’s beneficial to give as many films positive recognition as possible. Splitting up the awards does that. On the other hand, it seems unfair not to give each prize to the most deserving candidate, regardless of how the other awards were divided.

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